A burst pipe in the fire suppression system at Helena's Friendship Center released hundreds of gallons of water into the building earlier this year, causing damage that executive director Kim Kehoe says will take months to fully repair. The Friendship Center serves survivors of domestic violence across a three-county area, making the facility's recovery a matter of safety for some of the region's most vulnerable residents.
The pipe failure sent water through portions of the building, damaging infrastructure that a domestic violence shelter depends on to operate securely and confidentially. Kehoe has been managing the recovery while keeping services running — a balancing act that smaller nonprofits know well, where there is no second facility to absorb operations while the primary site heals.
The Friendship Center's catchment area covers Lewis and Clark, Jefferson, and Broadwater counties, meaning the Helena facility is the hub for a wide stretch of west-central Montana. Any prolonged reduction in capacity has ripple effects across that entire region.
The organization has not publicly announced a fundraising campaign tied to the repairs, but residents looking to support the Friendship Center's recovery can contact the organization directly. A full timeline for repairs had not been released as of this week.